Communication & Leadership
Communication is an essential component in becoming an effective leader. Earlier today I read an article named “Performance: The Physicality of Audience Engagement”, by Helio Fred Garcia. The main purpose of this article is to give the reader an insight of the qualities leaders have in order to properly reach out to others. One quote that stood out to me is when the author says “Leaders need to be good at interpersonal verbal engagement- one-on-one and large group, in person and at a distance. I have found a high correlation between leaders seeing part of their work as continually developing their communication skills and their overall success”. In other words, a truly successful leader always looks for ways in which they can improve themselves to be the best they can be. Being able to connect with many different people through a high skill level of communication gives them a sense of trust and loyalty they can bring to you.
According to the article, a leader is judged based on three fundamental public leadership attributes. Those attributes are how the reader carries himself or herself, how the leader engages with others, and the words the leader uses to reach out to others. It is imperative to demonstrate the qualities you have at the earliest chance, so the first impression someone will have of you is one that resembles the image of a leader.
Your body speaks to people before your mouth does. The body posture of a leader show a stance of confidence so others may follow. The article gives examples of how to do this such as keeping your feet planted firmly apart when standing, and sitting close the the desk with your back not touching the back of the chair when you are speaking at a table.
I play the role of the co-captain of my recreational intramural basketball team here at UB. However, I do not think my leadership is where it should have been last night during our first game of the season. When our captain is resting on the bench, the team looks to me to lead us on the court. Even though we had a slight lead in a very close game, my shot wasn’t falling. We ended up losing by 1 point in overtime and I apologized to the team for not being able to play the way I should have in order for us to win the game. After reading the article today, I was able to gain some useful knowledge to help me in my leadership role. I have another game tonight for my competitive league team and I’ll let you guys know how it goes in my next post.
